Happy new year (plus: I’m creating art again!)
“Creativity takes courage” Henri Matisse
Happy new year, friends!
I hope you’re having a wonderful start to 2018.
The past few weeks have been so crazy over here (shipping out lots of art before the holidays, celebrating the holidays, moving to a new house, lots of sickness) and so I didn’t carve out any time to reflect on the past year and create goals for the new year like I usually do.
To be honest, the complete blank slate I have right now has been refreshing. I don’t have a long list of goals or resolutions, I didn’t brainstorm a million things I want to change about myself or my life. Instead I’m sitting here in my new studio, which is still only half set up, and I’ve allowed myself to prioritize creating art again.
Simple joys and painting progress
“Nobody can be uncheered with a balloon” A. A. Milne
As happens every once in a while, I’ve been feeling nostalgic for Winnie the Pooh lately. Then the other day I came across the quote above. Nobody can be uncheered with a balloon.
Don’t you love how the best simple wisdom lives in children’s stories? Some things and experiences are just plain fun, no matter how small.
As Isaac becomes more aware of his surroundings, I’ve been looking at the world through his eyes. I think I’d forgotten how to experience the world like this in the midst of all the hustle, to appreciate sunlight flickering over the wall or the quiet hum of a fan, to be entranced by a bright color or the texture of a soft blanket.
I love how the world is so available to us in this way and babies have the beautifully unique experience of witnessing so much for the first time.
Let’s be cheered by a balloon today (or something equally small and fun)! Allow yourself that simple joy. Here I am enjoying mine:
Animal art in progress (plus, the power of not rushing)
“And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it” – Paulo Coelho
I’ve realized something useful as I work on my growing animal art series.
What I’m painting right now feels totally in alignment with the direction I want to go. Better yet, I feel like I’m on the right track in developing an artistic style that I LOVE but never could have predicted when I began.
This is of course how any journey begins – the earnest beginnings, the stretch in multiple directions to see what works and what doesn’t. How we hold our favorite parts of each new experience close to our hearts and stitch them together to form a path like a patchwork quilt.
And yet stitching together that path takes time.
Sketches. Brief conversations. Inspirations that only spark when the mind is quiet. Realizing what I love about the work of other artists but also how my work is different.
I needed that time. I still do, in waves. When I rush I miss so much.
I remember so clearly beginning my journey as an artist and feeling an enormous impatience to have everything figured out right away. Sometimes the feeling was so overwhelming I had trouble painting at all, knowing how long it might take to grow fully into this identity.
Finding stillness (plus, new art and sketches!)
“I don’t know exactly what a prayer is. / I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down / into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass, / how to be idle and blessed” Mary Oliver
How to be idle and blessed.
This phrase is from one of my absolute favorite poems by Mary Oliver (we actually used another line of this poem for our wedding invitations).
When I hear idle and blessed I think of deep rest and day dreaming, of doing an activity that lights you up and clears away the chaos in your mind.
I also think about how I’m most in tune with what I want when I can be inside that stillness for a little while. Are you the same way?
I’ve been craving quiet lately, but there are so many ways to immerse ourselves in quiet beyond taking a nap or sitting in silence.
Stillness emerges when we turn away from the screens and to-do lists to focus on one simple activity that just feels good. Lately my activity has been sketching.
Last week I visited a local arboretum with a friend / artist to draw (hi, Lisa!). Simply being outside with pen and paper felt like a salve for my heart and we saw the funkiest sculptures. Here’s me taking them in.
I'd like to read more, please»
When fear meets clarity
“Moonlight floods the whole sky from horizon to horizon; How much it can fill your room depends on its windows” – Rumi
I love this Rumi quote for its simplicity.
How much light do we let into our lives? How much beauty, how much focus?
Lately I’ve been feeling the pull to draw inwards, stay super focused, and just finish projects that have been lingering.
When we focus on just one project at a time, there’s much less space for the usual excuses to crop up. Have you ever said the following? I have!
I'd like to read more, please»Exactly where we need to be
“Once we believe in ourselves, we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight, or any experience that reveals the human spirit” – e. e. cummings
Today I’m thinking about curiosity and patience.
First, the little spark that tugs at our minds until we follow, leading us down that new path in the woods or towards a new recipe or book on the shelf. Second, the gentle compassion and focus that keep us moving until we’ve discovered what we’re meant to discover.
I have always been a curious person, interested in what will happen if I experiment with my diet or behaviors or routine. I do a LOT of testing (just ask Eric!), and probably my most common phrase is “so, I’m going to try this new thing and see how it goes.”
I LOVE that discovery is available for each of us, and available in so many forms.
However it’s not surprising that I’ve been receiving the same message everywhere I turn lately – in blogs, conversations, angel cards, dreams – that patience is the key to powerful change.
There’s simply no way around putting in the effort to practice something (painting, cooking, exercising, loving, communicating). As we practice, layers of our experience build and build until they simply merge and become part of us.
Each layer is a gift that unlocks the path to the next.
Patience has been on my mind a lot lately as I continue to do my weekly paintings. I paint rather intuitively, letting my heart guide my brush, and I’m still exploring what abstract painting has to offer.
I'd like to read more, please»Be bold and do the work
“The most important possible thing you could do is do a lot of work. Do a huge volume of work.” – Ira Glass
I was recently reminded of this great Ira Glass video where he gives advice on doing creative work. The video is short (2 minutes), so definitely watch if you’ve never seen it.
One of his main points is that every creative person goes through a phase where their work is just not as good as they want it to be, but the only way out of that phase is to keep creating. He reminds us that most people quit when their work and process do not meet their ambitions, but if we just keep going and keep creating and keep learning, we’ll get there.
I don’t see this video as specific to visual artists, so it can apply to all of us who are creating or learning or developing new skills. I’m also certainly not here to hint that our work isn’t good (I would never!). I am here to say that exploring, creating, and experimenting will take us to new levels and help us to figure out what truly makes us happy. Keep stretching that comfort zone!
Here’s my latest painting experiment (on a 6×6 wood panel):
Be kind (plus, a new painting)
“No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted” – Aesop
Recently I decided I needed a new angel card. These little cards, when picked during a moment of stillness and contemplation, are so great at helping to frame my day. You can find them here.
I pulled the Kindness card.
As I thought about the Kindness card, my first reaction was to think why kindness? I think I’m a kind person. What else do I need to learn?
And then came the second, more instinctual reaction: how kind are you to yourself?
Of course, that answer is mixed.
I do kind things: I try to listen to my body. I work hard to keep my schedule from getting too overwhelming. I follow my dreams.
But I also do un-kind things: I consistently stay up late working when I should be sleeping. I criticize myself in the mirror. I hold myself to a ridiculously high standard of success and feel badly when I can’t reach it.
So, I’m writing this today because I want all of us to remember this simple truth:
It’s so critical to be kind. Always to each other, but more importantly to ourselves.
This is an especially important lesson to me this week as I started experimenting with video.
I'd like to read more, please»I choose trust as my map
“Wherever you stand, be the soul of that place” – Rumi
As I was working on this week’s painting, I was thinking about how change happens. The process is different for all of us, but the core is the same: we are exposed to new things, learn something new through that exposure, and that newness reflects itself in what we create and do and think.
Eric and I were discussing that my core style as an artist, the method and style of painting that truly lights me up and makes me radiate joy when I reach my studio, is still evolving. And that’s okay. Likely I will end up somewhere in the middle, taking what I love from landscape paintings and what I love from abstract paintings as inspiration.
It really is okay to grow, shift, try new things, and come back to the beginning again. It’s okay to expand our comfort zones and do the project that terrifies us and come out on the other side just a little bit changed.
I told Eric that I was feeling a little anxious that I can’t see the road map of where I’ll end up, and he reminded me that we learn what works for us by trying new things instead of merely thinking about trying.
We can talk and talk and talk about our dreams and plans, but until we actually take action and see how it feels to pursue that dream, we’ll never really know.
My only rule is reflected so perfectly by this Rumi quote: wherever you stand, be the soul of that place. To me, this means that whatever we try, we need to try with our whole hearts. We need to do our best quality work, take the attempt seriously, and we need to not give up.
This week’s painting is called Trust for this very reason. Do you trust that you will find the answers you need, even if you can’t yet see the path? Today I choose trust as my map.